How Unpopular Policies are Made: Examples from South Africa, Singapore, and Bangladesh

In this article we contribute to the emerging knowledge on migration policy?making in two ways. Firstly, we address the relative lack of research on the gendered nature of migration policy?making. Secondly we contribute to understanding migration policymaking in postcolonial contexts. Based on case studies from Bangladesh, South Africa, and Singapore, we trace the drivers of policy change in these contexts and how the gendered vulnerability of the intended beneficiaries impacted the policy process. We found that there were four main drivers of migration policy?making in each of the countries. They were: the role?players in the policy change process, the debates that shaped the policy change, the research involved, and the political context in which the policy change took place. While our research drew on existing policy frameworks, it also showed that policy development is shaped by complex socio?political conditions.DFIDMigrating out of Povert

Role of renin–angiotensin system antagonists on long-term mortality post-percutaneous coronary intervention in reduced and preserved ejection fraction

Aims: The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) or angiotensin II-receptor blockers (ARBs) post-myocardial infarction (MI) is supported by evidence based on trials performed in the thrombolysis era. This was prior to primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) being routine practice, and with little direct evidence for the use of these medications in patients with preserved left ventricular (LV) function. This study sought to determine whether there is an association between ACEi/ARB use after PCI for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and long-term all-cause mortality, with a particular focus on patients with preserved LV function. Methods: This multicentre, observational study evaluated prospectively collected data of 21,388 patients (> 18 years old) that underwent PCI for NSTEMI and STEMI between 2005 and 2018, and were alive at 30 day follow-up. Results: In total, 83.8% of patients were using ACEi/ARBs. Kaplan–Meier analysis demonstrated ACEi/ARB use was associated with a significantly lower mortality in the entire cohort (15.0 vs. 22.7%; p < 0.001) with a mean follow-up of 5.58 years; and independently associated with 24% lower mortality by Cox proportional hazards modelling (HR 0.76, CI 0.67–0.85, p < 0.001). ACEi/ARB therapy was also associated with significantly lower mortality in patients with reduced or preserved LV function, with greater survival benefit with worse LV dysfunction. Conclusion: ACEi/ARB therapy post-PCI is associated with significantly lower long-term mortality in patients with reduced and preserved LV function. These findings provide contemporary evidence for using these agents in the current era of routine primary PCI, including those with preserved EF. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.

Global Search for New Physics with 2.0/fb at CDF

Data collected in Run II of the Fermilab Tevatron are searched for indications of new electroweak-scale physics. Rather than focusing on particular new physics scenarios, CDF data are analyzed for discrepancies with the standard model prediction. A model-independent approach (Vista) considers gross features of the data, and is sensitive to new large cross-section physics. Further sensitivity to new physics is provided by two additional algorithms: a Bump Hunter searches invariant mass distributions for "bumps" that could indicate resonant production of new particles; and the Sleuth procedure scans for data excesses at large summed transverse momentum. This combined global search for new physics in 2.0/fb of ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV reveals no indication of physics beyond the standard model.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures. Final version which appeared in Physical Review D Rapid Communication

Shell evolution approaching the N=20 island of inversion : Structure of 26Na

The levels in 26Na with single particle character have been observed for the first time using the d(25Na, pγ) reaction at 5 MeV/nucleon. The measured excitation energies and the deduced spectroscopic factors are in good overall agreement with (0+1)hω shell model calculations performed in a complete spsdfp basis and incorporating a reduction in the N=20 gap. Notably, the 1p3/2 neutron configuration was found to play an enhanced role in the structure of the low-lying negative parity states in 26Na, compared to the isotone 28Al. Thus, the lowering of the 1p3/2 orbital relative to the 0f7/2 occurring in the neighbouring Z=10 and 12 nuclei - 25,27Ne and 27,29Mg - is seen also to occur at Z=11 and further strengthens the constraints on the modelling of the transition into the island of inversion

Observation of Orbitally Excited B_s Mesons

We report the first observation of two narrow resonances consistent with states of orbitally excited (L=1) B_s mesons using 1 fb^{-1} of ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. We use two-body decays into K^- and B^+ mesons reconstructed as B^+ \to J/\psi K^+, J/\psi \to \mu^+ \mu^- or B^+ \to \bar{D}^0 \pi^+, \bar{D}^0 \to K^+ \pi^-. We deduce the masses of the two states to be m(B_{s1}) = 5829.4 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2 and m(B_{s2}^*) = 5839.7 +- 0.7 MeV/c^2.Comment: Version accepted and published by Phys. Rev. Let

A secreted PD-L1 splice variant that covalently dimerizes and mediates immunosuppression

Targeting immune checkpoint pathways, such as programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1, also known as CD274 or B7-H1) or its receptor programmed cell death-1 (PD-1) has shown improved survival for patients with numerous types of cancers, not limited to lung cancer, melanoma, renal cell carcinoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma. PD-L1 is a co-inhibitory molecule whose expression on the surface of tumor cells is associated with worse prognosis in many tumors. Here we describe a splice variant (secPD-L1) that does not splice into the transmembrane domain, but instead produces a secreted form of PD-L1 that has a unique 18 amino acid tail containing a cysteine that allows it to homodimerize and more effectively inhibit lymphocyte function than monomeric soluble PD-L1. We show that recombinant secPD-L1 can dimerize and inhibit T-cell proliferation and IFN-gamma production in vitro. The secPD-L1 variant is expressed by malignant cells in vitro that also express high levels of full-length PD-L1. Transcriptomic analysis of gene expression across The Cancer Genome Atlas found the strongest association of secPD-L1 with full-length PD-L1, but also with subsets of immunologic genes, such as in myeloid-derived suppressor cells. Moreover, the splice variant is also expressed in normal tissues and within normal peripheral blood cells it is preferentially expressed in activated myeloid cells. This is the first report of a form of secreted PD-L1 that homodimerizes and is functionally active. SecPD-L1 may function as a paracrine negative immune regulator within the tumor, since secPD-L1 does not require a cell-to-cell interaction to mediate its inhibitory effect

Spectroscopy of 91Zr51 at medium to high spins

Identification of near-yrast states in the β-stable nucleus 91Zr51 has been carried out using the fusion evaporation reaction, 82Se(13C,4n)91Zr at an incident beam energy of 50 MeV. States above the reported r = 6 μs, Iπ = 21/2+ isomeric level at Ex = 3167 keV have been identified for the first time in this work, a tentative decay scheme of near-yrast states to excitation energies in excess of 10 MeV has been constructed. These states are of relevance to shell model structures formed via limited valence-space configurations in this semi-magic N = 51 nucleus

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe